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Gov. Andrew Cuomo just held an update on the recovery from Superstorm Sandy and while more and more people in the New York metropolitan area are getting their lights back on, gas shortages continue to be a problem, in part because of what he termed “panic buying,” in which motorists may fill their tanks if they get just a bit low, for fear of running out.

“We now are buying more fuel than we would normally be buying,” the governor said, adding that the prospect of a Nor’easter bearing down on the East Coast has sparked renewed fears.

Also, delays remain in getting fuel from ocean-going tankers to consumers, even as they are mixing ethanol and gasoline directly in tanker trucks rather than putting them in large storage tanks first.

At some terminals, there are up to 100 fuel trucks waiting to be filled, Cuomo said, explaining that’s how bad the backlog is. “We have issues on every point of the service delivery.”

The governor continued, as he did on Monday, to take aim at utility companies for what he said was their slow response to fixing downed power lines. Currently, he said about 350,000 remain without power. He also said he wants an inquiry after the storm recovery to find out what went wrong and what could be done better in the future. He added that he believes there will be future storms given the recent history.

Cuomo also noted that Home Depot is donated several truckloads of cleaning supplies to New York and New Jersey — company VP Tony Lemma was on hand — and the governor said that corporations will have a role to play in the storm recovery.

“We’re going to ask corporations for support in terms of products. We’re going to need home furnishings. We’re going to need lumber. We’re going to need furnaces,” he said.

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